Sunday, March 5, 2017

New York Times: Chinese Lawmakers’ Wallets Have Grown Along With Xi’s Power

The People's Republic of China, once a country adhering strictly to communist principles, today is a market-oriented mixed economy as is the United States. An economy where government and private ownership (capitalists) share in the production of goods and services.

However, in this system, government, politicians, and capitalists create a dependence on one another. The government becomes a plutocracy, explicitly oligarchical. It becomes corrupt with quid pro quos and insurances that certain politicians and legislation favor certain interest.

It’s inherent in capitalism. Also inherent in capitalism is inequality. Capitalism creates great wealth and opportunity for the few while disadvantaging the rest. Capitalism is the cause of all the world’s problems. Among them, oligarchy, plutocracy, economic instability, war, hunger, and social disparity, particularly in healthcare and education. It’s the reason we have political parties and a divided country. It’s the reason we have an authoritarian, Donald Trump, as the President of the United States.

Capitalists, as “Mao once branded capitalists enemies of the Chinese people,” are the enemy of all the world’s people.

We need to change the system. We can make this a better place for all of the world’s inhabitants by evolving to a world without the need of money.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping are at the epicenters of a new global oligarchy that’s not just driving up prices of real estate in New York, London, San Francisco, and Vancouver but also entrenching itself politically around the world.

1. Trump has brought more billionaires into his administration than any administration in history. They include one of the richest men in the nation, Wilbur Ross, his new Secretary of Commerce, as well as Rex Tillerson, the new Secretary of State.

2. Putin, for whom Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration, is at the center of Russia’s own cluster of oligarchs who have extracted billions from Russia’s oil, gas, and financial sectors, and are tightly linked to the Kremlin.

3. Xi Jinping is at the center of the third cluster. As the Times reports, below, the combined fortune of the wealthiest members of China’s Parliament and its advisory body amounts to $500 billion, just below the annual economic output of Sweden. Among that group of 209 entrepreneurs and business tycoons, the 100 richest saw their net worth rise 64 percent in the four years since Xi took power.

These three clusters of oligarchs intersect. For example, Wilbur Ross is a major partner in the Bank of Cypress, which serves as a conduit for Russian oligarchic money; Ross just nominated to head the bank the former head of Deutsche Bank, who was just implicated in a Russian money laundering scheme. Deutsche Bank is also Trump’s largest known lender.

Tillerson is also close to Putin and Russia's oil billionaires.

Trump, Putin, and Xi pretend they represent the people. In fact, they represent the most powerful moneyed interests in the world today.

About Me and My Blog

The mission of this blog is to promote the
proposition that you and I should dedicate ourselves to building a culture of
peace by affirming that humanism will triumph the theologies of despair and the
ideologies of violence — a personal commitment to work toward eliminating war
and all other forms of violence.

By sharing through writing and interaction with
others we inspire, learn, connect, and in the process we can change the world,
over time, one-step at a time.

My goal is to point out values and new ways of
thinking that will lead to peace or point out impediments to reaching that
goal.

I value the work of others, I will acknowledge
them, and when I believe I can present their views in another way, from another
perspective or build upon those views, I will. In this blog, I intend to allow
in everyone’s comment his or her say, positive or negative, politically correct
or not, without moderation. The only reason I will moderate will be if the
language used is in poor taste, i.e. using foul words. I will not blog about
others in degrading ways.

This blog will not be heavy with statistics.
The web is saturated with any statistic one could imagine from a variety of
sources. Any statistic will be simply linked.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of
intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of
honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a
healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one
life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
(Success by Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names
are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that
they do not remain the way they are. (Augustine of Hippo)

Some Men See Things as They Are and Say Why; I
Dream Things That Never Were and Say Why Not (Robert F Kennedy)

Bicycles are all about trust and balance …
that’s what love is. (Nikki Giovani)

Now retired after a forty-four year management career, Horatio now writes about things of which he has a perspective, and issues that he views are obstructions to the well-being of all life and world peace.